Lost Countdown: And Here. We. Go.

The wait is over and in a mere matter of hours, Lost will begin its final season. For a serial show such as this, the final season takes on more meaning because its what everything has been building to since 2004. But I don't expect the best season of television I have ever seen, I expect an entertaining, occasionally frustrating and occasionally great. Hopefully more of the latter. My apologies for cross textualizing with a Dark Knight quote to set up a season of Lost, the confusion must be devastating.

Lost Countdown: The 7 Most Impactful Recurring Characters

It's a hard life being a recurring character on Lost. If you're not forgotten, violently killed or discarded, then life seems to be a series of merciless beatings and tertiary sidelining. Sometimes you can break out from the pack ( See Desmond or Ben, who were both awesome enough to earn regular status) But this is a list of the supporting players of this universe, to whom the show owes an unacknowledged debt either in terms of plot-leaning or quietly good acting. The qualification requires the character to have never been a regular up to the end of season five. Let's do this.

7) Penny Widmore

Sonya Walger did a very good job with this character, whose job it often was to appear in the last five minutes of a given episode and earn our emotional investment. Lost asked a lot of Penny, selling an epic romance while appearing so briefly is no small thing yet her relationship with Desmond has become the most genuine on the show. Fair Play

6) Tom A.K.A Mr Friendly


MC Gainey's job on this show was so often to stand in the background, maybe crack a one liner or two but otherwise do what he was told. Yet through the charm Gainey brought to the role, he ended up perhaps the most useful of the 'soldier' others. AKA the ones that got demolished once the show was done with them. But I remember this scene, and I remember that this character had my attention.

5) Danielle Rousseau

Before being unceremoniously capped in season 4, Rousseau did have her moments on Lost. And again, this is largely down to Mira Furlan's relatively subtle take on what is a fairly simple riff on the archetype of crazy bitch in the woods. Particularly in season two's Maternity Leave, where the character was given some real humanity, she set herself apart.

4) Charles Widmore

Alan Dale does play the same role in everything. Almost without exception. An old, bitter millionaire douche. Every time. First in the OC, then in Ugly Betty then in Lost. So the character's presence is more to do with what the writers have done with him more then what Dale brings to it, which isn't bad but is pretty stock really. But the cleverness with which the show tied Widmore into the island happenings, particularly in seasons 4 and 5, made him a major player, and that is set to continue in season 6.

3) Rose

A character whose continued presence in this show I think is solely down to the soul that L Scott Caldwell brought the character. Without her consistently turning in stellar performances, she no doubt would have been left in the dust. But she earned herself regular airtime and even some real story. She's never going to be anyone's favorite character, but she has survived Lost from the beginning whilst being entirely irrelevent to narrative happenings. Now that takes some chops right there.

2) Martin Keamy

Love this guy. On a show where everybody is always, always manipulating each other, something that can grow old very quickly, I can't tell you what a breath of fresh air it was to have a villain you could just love to hate, who would go around killing everyone in sight with minimal monologing like some 80's action movie villain (And it be a good thing). Like a stalling chess game was revitalized by a a strong, terrifically acted (Kevin Durand is pure awesome) warrior piece who has had it with the chicken shit games. Its a mixed metaphor, but what the hell, Keamy was exactly what this show needed when it needed it.

1) Richard Alpert

The rise of Richard Alpert from relatively minor other to fan favorite who became this mythical island figure whose very presence seems to lead to hysterical excitement that important shit is coming. Nestor Carbonell knocked this one out of the park form the beginning, lending a welcome calm and intelligence to the Lost universe. Which given the amount of stupidity our main characters often display, he is always, always welcome. He has even become a worthy third player in the Ben and Locke show, with his scenes with these characters having a bit more weight then certain other cast members.

Lost Coutndown: The 7 Great Narrative Mistakes

Lost can be good, but it can also crash into a brick wall. And for the relationship I have with this show, it seems a little dishonest to do five posts about how awesome it is. So here's one antagonistic post for the road. A lot goes on in Lost, usually simultaneously, so often little mishaps and even the bigger ones don't get too much attention. But they are there, believe me. Here are the worst of them.

7) Wow Libby was in the mental institution with Hurley? That's crazy. I can't wait to find...Never mind.Now Libby did seem pretty extraneous on her introduction, the third tailie that nobody wanted. But then they worked hard at making her a stronger character, gave her a relatively sweet relationship with Hurley and that hit us with the epic twist that she was his buddy in the mental institution. Finally getting us interested. Then they killed her. Fine, well done guys, I wasn't expecting it. Urah for you. But I wasn't expecting it because its straight up bad storytelling, and left a pretty major plothole utterly unaddressable. An example of why people got frustrated with this show.

6) Wow Walt has powers? And he got taken by the others. That's crazy. I can't wait to find...Never mind

Yes I suppose this one isn't entirely their fault, given a small boy's unfortunate habit of growing up and as hilarious as it would have been to see a six foot tall Walt still pretend to be 12, it may not have been practical. But I submit this to you, Lost Writers. You must have known this from the start, yet you asked a question you had no intention of answering. Which is a classic example of the writerly douchiness this show is occasionally capable of.

5) Meet the Tailies. Now watch them die!

An expansion of the Libby issue, but on a grander scale. So basically we spent a season with these new characters, doing all the necessary spadework, slowly and steadily integrating them with our core characters, giving them backstory and benching existing characters to do it. Which would have been fine if they were long term introduction that you had any intention of doing something with. But no, they were all dead by the fifth episode of season three, barely a year after they were introduced. So all that digging in was for exactly jack shit. Well except for Bernard I suppose.

4) Ben 4 Juliet

This is an interesting one too, because this is not necessarily bad in its conception. And seeing Ben's twisted view of romance may have been interesting. But basically after they came out and said that Ben had schemed to keep her here for years and was in creepy love with her. They essentially benched it. Never to be heard of again. To this day. Maybe they'll get back to it in the final season, but the complete ignoring of the long-running love of a very important character to the show seems a little careless. Its almost like they were skeeved out by their own storyline.

3) Michael's back for season 4! To be shamelessly shafted!

Michael's exit was big deal. He went out with a body count, and was the first regular character to leave the island. His eventual return was going to be a big thing. So when we found out he was coming back for season 4, it was like whoa shit. But as far I can tell, they basically brought him back to kill him. They had no other interest really. He appeared in only four episodes, counting the finale as one, two of which he had only one scene in. He was too big a character to gave this crass treatment to. Lazy stuff.

2) I know what this show needs. Two randomers who can't act.

Nikki and Paulo. People sure did hate them. I hated them. But I don't buy the writers excuse to why it failed. They were like it didn't work because people didn't accept that they had the right to be a part of our well established group, very subtly blaming us for their mistake. Well yeah. But also because you did it flat out badly. The other survivors could have provided us with a character we liked and had a vested interest in, but your two choices were basically talentless eye candy. It was appalling writing, where the flaw was not with the idea but the execution.

1) Thinking that Jack, Kate and Sawyer a.k.a the triangle, is the most fascinating aspect of the show. Well Show-runners, you got yours.

The beginning of season three was the darkest time for Lost, critically speaking. There was a huge backlash and Heroes was the hip new kid on the scene. It failed not because of what happened necessarily, but because of what didn't happen. There was next to no Locke, Eko, Desmond, Charlie, Sayid or Sun and Jin. And Lost is a show where everyone has a different favorite character or aspect. So yes some people liked the triangle, but some people didn't, a lot of people didn't and the fact that so many of our favorite characters were no shows was a betrayal of what this show is about basically. The six episode mini-season was the biggest written failure Lost ever gave us, not because of badness per say, but because it sidelined what makes the show great and accentuated the parts we tolerate. I didn't go where it should have gone and that got right in our frustrated little faces.

Lost Countdown: The 7 Best Non-Finale Episodes

Lost is known for its feature length, mind-blowing finale's. They've become almost a signature, and I think by and large their repeatedly excellent execution has what's kept people coming back to Lost, because I'm told it can drag at times. But in the spirit of the contrary, a list of it's great one-off episodes seems entirely the kind of thing I would do. Lost is certainly inconsistent and does not by any stretch of the imagination keep a consistent level of quality week to week. One week it can legitimately blow your mind and leave you thinking you're watching the best show ever made. Then its followed by a Kate episode (No disrespect to Evangeline Lilly, who can be a good actress at times, but her character's episodes are almost without exception complete balls.) and things get swiftly back to underwhelming. But through the years the show has certainly had its moments.


7) The 23rd Psalm

Remember Mr Eko? Man was that a long time ago. But unless my memories deceive me he was a relentlessly awesome giant guy with a giant stick which he whacked people with, which was pretty much the extent of his character until we got to this episode where his backstory was laid out in a suprisingly affecting and impressively acted manor. Powerful stuff. Even heavy Charlie screentime was tolerable here.

6) The Man Behind The Curtain

We all knew Ben's first flashback episode was going to be good, because come on it had to be, but The Man Behind The Curtain is one of the most mythologically rich yet thematically satisfying episodes Lost ever produced. Emerson has always been dynamite to this show, but any episode where he is paired heavily with Terry O Quinn (Locke) is pretty much the best the show ever got. O' Quinn was and is the only actor who Emerson doesn't blow of the screen on Lost, which makes their arc, of which this episode was arguably the most satisfying, possibly the best thing on the latter series of the show.

5) Confidence Man

I think the fact that Josh Holloway was such a good actor caught everyone by surprise. We were there enjoying our two-dimensional southern stereotype, generally being an asshole and making us laugh. But this episode gave Holloway such a terrific platform to make his character someone worth paying attention too, and he came through with flying colours. An emotional yet manly episode, which is fitting.

4) One Of Them

Many characters have got a shaft on Lost, but none so undeservingly as Naveen Andrews' Sayid. Sure he had a cool bit in season 4, but he was in the previous two seasons for roughly about twenty minutes a piece. There was however this particular diamond in the rough, nestled in between a series of quite unremarkable season 2 midseason episodes. There's the introduction of Henry Gale sure, but this is a great piece of television because Andrews makes it a great piece of television. Its a near perfect example of small screen acting.

3) Walkabout

The first episode really, where Lost showed you it could be more then you thought it could be. Its terrificly written by Buffy alum David Fury, and created television history in our first real moments of John Locke, who was certainly my favorite thing about the first season and possibly all seasons after that. An inspired creation that the show never really knew what to do with.

2) Numbers

If there was ever a better WTF episode of anything, I really want to see it. Every second of numbers leaves you enslaved in an endless cycle of OMG. There's even a bit with a rope bridge. The numbers are on the hatch! They all gonna die! Hurley getting screentime! All pretty awesome really.

1) The Constant

Because as a cynical dude, who so often hates the way Lost has gormlessly tried to evoke an emotional response, I found the time they really got it right turned out to be spell-binding. A terrific high-concept one-off episode, combining Henry Ian Cusick's soulful manicism as Desmond with some genuinely great writing, a phrase I use sparingly in regard to this show, its one of those times you just have to sit back and let something amazing happen before your eyes.

Lost Countdown: The 7 Most Shocking Moments Of Violence In Lost's History

Lost does like its murdering. Whilst its relatively prudish in other areas of exploitation, there's a joyous sadism at times in the way Lost whacks its various cast members. Sometimes its all moving and in slow-mo and all sad and stuff, but at others its cruel, quick and unforgiving. To be clear this isn't a list of the most impactful deaths in the show's history, and if you could see it coming it don't qualify, hence no Charlie or Locke's dad. Just the most shocking. So lets get to it. needless to say, many many SPOILERS

7) Arzt Blows Himself Up, Exodus

So one minute there's a recently introduced condescending douche telling everyone what's what about nitro-glycerin. Then there's not, because he just blew himself up by retardly waving around highly unstable dynamite and you just spilled your coffee all over yourself. This one is truly a cosmic irony snap.

6) Shannon Gets Shot, Abandoned

The word useless was floated around a lot with Shannon, who's character was basically a one-note cheap joke about how ridiculous Paris Hilton is. But I'll admit by her brutal end she had grown on me. The brutal end in question saw her take an accidental bullet from the paranoid and over-acting Michelle Rodriguez, because she and her gang were being chased by a bunch of invisible voices. Ownage.

5) Locke Gets Shot, The Man Behind The Curtain

Technically this one isn't a kill sure, but its still caught everyone well the fuck off guard. This is John Locke for Christ's sake, the show's most iconic and awesome commodity. You can't kill him. And sure enough it was a highly effective fake out, because you can't kill John Locke. Not for another year or so anyway.

4) Locke takes a skydive, The Man From Tallahassee

Locke again, this dude took some pain on this show didn't he. So anyway we are chilling in a seemingly superfluous flashback scene, as they nearly all were in season three, with our man confronting evil daddy and then BOOM. Fool just got pushed out of a window. But he was miraculously saved. To be a tool in an evil scheme.

3) Michael Wastes Half The Female Cast, Two for the Road

This one got me. Michael has just returned to the camp, after escaping the custody of jungle-dwelling others and their evil schemes. Ana-Lucia, just tried to kill the clearly evil Henry Gale but bottled it. Michael's like I'll do it, because they took my son!. She gives him the gun and then bang. Michelle Rodriguez just got shot. The Libby walks in. Bang. Libby Just got shot. Then dude shoots himself! Guy was crazy after all.

2) Alex's Boyfriend And Mother Get Killed In front Of Her Eyes, Meet Kevin Johnson

When Lost clears the books, it does so with some style. Sure, Karl and Rousseau were pretty superfluous to the show at this point. But still I was watching A Michael episode a minute ago and we just cut to these no marks. What the fuck? Oh right they are all gonna die horribly. Well except for Alex, which brings me to number one.

1) Who Says We Can't Shoot A Teenage Girl In The Face On Primetime Television?, The Shape Of Things To Come

So sweet harmless Alex just saw her entire extended family eat lead. Now there's a giant psychopathic mercenary telling her what's what and informing her evil step-dad that he's going to kill sweet, harmless Alex if he doesn't give himself up. Now given that the evil step-dad in question Is Benjamin Linus, surely he's going to do the honorable thing and sacrifice himself to save his kid. Hells no. So sweet harmless Alex takes one point blank to the face. And Ben lives to manipulate another day. Well at least it had a happy ending.

Lost Countdown

It may not be the best show ever or anything, but for some reason I get more excited at the imminent return of Lost then I do almost anything. Call it my semi-guilty pleasure. Anyways, as the final season approaches, tension rides high. We beg for it more then anything not to suck. Well in anticipation for possible awesomeness, I'm doing a five day countdown before its premiere on February the 2nd. Because we like our lists here damn it.